Москва, Россия

Moscow, a beautiful city and not nearly as expensive as everyone says it is. Just stay away from the ultra-hip restaurants and you’ll be fine.

After a smooth flight from Helsinki and a not so smooth ride from the airport to the hotel, we decided to visit the Kremlin. After a short walk of some 3.6 KM we learned that November 1st is not a good day to visit the Kremlin. The whole red square had military and policemen swarming over it and was pretty much closed to the public. After hanging around for a minute or ten, we decided to try our luck the next day and just head back to the hotel for some dinner. We stayed at the Swissotel and had a terrific diner the first night at the ultra-hip Kai restaurant. Ultra-hip food, idem prices.

The next day we walked to the Kremlin again (which, to our relieve, was fully accesible) and visited the St. Basil Cathedral. We wandered around for a bit, took some photo’s from the out- and inside of the cathedral and walked around the Historical Museum. The line in front of the ticket office was huge, so we agreed that we would visit the Kremlin the day after, assuming that Monday would be a bit more quiet. Next on our list was the Christ The Saviour Cathedral and when we stood in front of it, we couldn’t help noticing the magnificent building in the distance. As we walked towards it we recognized it as the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The building was a bit further away then we initially guessed, so it took us quite some time to get there. As we took some pictures of this magnificent building, it started to rain and as we walked back to the river, the wind picked up a bit. We decided to skip the Gorki park because of the rain and wind. All in all we walked a good 18 KM and decided to call it a day. We had some delicous Pizza at the little restaurant across the street.

Monday we visited the Kremlin and saw some beautiful cathedrals and, of course, the Tsar Cannon and Bell. The afternoon we visited some of the most spectacular subway stations on earth. Yvo was arrested for a bit while taking some photo’s, but besides that we had a pretty relaxed afternoon. For dinner we had mussels for a very affordable price.

We just flew back from Moscow and are now again in Helsinki, only to leave for Beijing in a few hours.

This is all for now I’m afraid. The Champagne is getting warm so we’ll have to head back to the business class lounge.